Chapter 12: The Competition

Lara ushered the dishevelled blonde through the entrance to her apartment. She took Jo by the arm and led her to the comfortable couches.

“Sit down here, Jo. I’ll be right back, okay?” Lara said, softly. Jo simply nodded while staring at the floor. Lara turned and headed back towards her front door. Alan was still standing there, shifting from foot to foot awkwardly, as if he wasn’t sure what to do with himself. He talked first when Lara reached him.

“Jesus, Lara. Is she okay?” he asked, the concern on his face evident.

“Honestly, Alan ... I’m not sure. Either way, I need to take care of her now. I hate to keep saying this to you, but I need to take a rain check on our night together,” she told him. Lara had been excited about their first night together and she felt awful to blue-ball the poor guy after weeks of build up, but Jo had to take precedent. She was hoping he’d get it.

“Of course, Lara. It goes without saying. I understand completely,” he responded. “Is she a friend of yours?” he added.

“Yes. She works at The Pearl with me. She was the only friend I had there for quite a while, in fact.”

“Can I do anything to help? Anything at all?” he asked. Lara closed the distance between them and leaned in to give him a quick kiss.

“Thanks for offering, Alan, but I think I’ve got it from here. You head home,” she told him, one hand on the door.

“Sure. Have a good night, Lara,” he said. His face changed quickly and then looked aghast at what he had suggested. “No, not like that ... obviously this ... whatever it is isn’t good. I meant...” he said stammering.

“I know what you meant. It’s okay, Alan. I’ll call you tomorrow,” she said as she started to close the door, slowly. Lara normally found his clumsiness with words endearing, but she needed him to leave so she could tend to Jo.

“Talk to you soon,” Alan said as she finally closed the door.

Lara walked at a brisk pace back into her living room and joined Jo on the couch. Lara noticed more about her appearance as she sat beside her. As she had noted before, her makeup was smeared and her bottom lip was bloodied and swollen. She had the beginnings of a black eye to go along with it. But she also noticed her broken fingernails and some ripping and loose threads of her hot pants styled shorts. Lara reached out and took Jo’s hand and held it between her own.

“Jo, what happened? Who did this?” Lara asked, trying to keep her tone gentle. Jo tore her eyes away from the floor and looked at Lara for the first time since she had sat down.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jo told her.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I just want to help,” Lara said giving the blonde’s hand a squeeze.

“I know,” Jo said while giving Lara a weak smile. “Can I take a shower? I really, really feel like I need one,” Jo asked. Lara hesitated. She wasn’t sure yet if her friend had been raped. If she had, a shower wasn’t the best idea. Going to the hospital was. Evidence would be washed away in a shower.

“I think maybe we should go to the hospital first, Jo. Get you taken care of,” Lara suggested. Jo shook her head.

“There is no point. I’m not reporting this, if that’s what you are thinking,” Jo said with a grim look on her face.

“Why not? Jo, this is serious. Who did this?” Lara asked. Jo sighed a deep sigh before finally answering.

“Price. Captain Price.”

“That slimy piece of shit?” Lara said, her nostrils flaring in anger. She calmed herself before asking the next question she knew she must.

“Did he...” Lara asked, letting her words linger as she struggled to complete the sentence. Jo simply nodded in affirmation at the unfinished, unspoken question.

That motherfucker. I’m going to kill him. Fuck Mike’s investigation, I’m going to stick a bullet in the fucker’s moustached face.

“Jo, I really think you should go to the hospital and then to the cops,” Lara said.

“Lara, he IS the cops,” Jo said matter of factly, still shaking her head. “What good would it do? You know how this would turn out.”

Lara knew Jo was right. The fuckers won’t take it seriously. “We investigated ourselves and found we did nothing wrong.” It would be business as usual she thought to herself. Still, she couldn’t just let this go. The man was a menace. Lara shifted off the couch and started to pace, thinking through her next idea as Jo sat there.

“Okay, so we go to Dave. United, as a group. All the girls. Demand Price be banned from the club. I don’t care what dealings Dave has with him, this shit stops now. We tell him we won’t entertain the cops any more,” Lara said, searching Jo’s face for any sign of agreement. For some indication that she was on board. She didn’t get it.

“Are you fucking insane? Dave will fire every last one of us on the spot!” Jo said, her voice rising now, frustrated at Lara’s insistence on action.

“He wouldn’t dare. The club would implode with nobody there to dance,” Lara said, confidently.

“Lara, let’s assume for a moment all the girls would agree to this ... union of yours. Not a fucking chance, by the way, but let’s assume they do. Dave would cull the lot of us,” Jo said.

“And who would be giving the dances? Dave himself?” Lara shot back.

“He’d be closed for a week. Tops. We would all be replaced in a heart beat, Lara. The Pearl’s reputation is growing. He’d have dancers queueing up. They know how much we earn. They’d jump at the chance,” Jo retorted. “Besides, this didn’t happen at the club.”

“So you weren’t working? Dave didn’t ask you to go to the VIP with Price?” Lara said, somewhat confused at what she was being told. Lara could remember how Dave had asked her to take Price to the VIP on her very first night. She had mistakenly assumed something similar had happened with Jo.

“No. It ... happened in his office. At the police station,” Jo answered reluctantly.

This makes no sense. What was she doing there? What isn’t she telling me?

“Lara, I know you want to help, but this sort of thing isn’t what I need right now,” Jo said, wincing as she shifted on the couch.

Do what she needs. Be there for her.

“Right, sure. You said you wanted a shower? Absolutely. It’s just through here. I’ll go get you some towels,” Lara said as she guided Jo through Lara’s bedroom and into the en suite bathroom before fetching some fresh towels for her.

“Take as long as you need. I’ll be just outside if you need anything,” Lara said as Jo stood woodenly in front of the entrance to the large and luxurious shower. Lara closed the bathroom door and headed back into the living room to give the blonde some privacy.

Jo had been right. About everything. Going through official channels with Price was a waste of time. He’d never see the inside of a cell. It would be swept under a rug. And her ambitious “appeal to Dave’s morality” plan was doomed to failure too. Lara knew from Mike that Dave likely had some sort of illegal deal with Price. Even if he did give a shit about how the girls felt about Price, Dave wouldn’t just abandon that for their sake. He’d sooner replace them. Still, there had to be something. And that’s when she thought of somebody who might know how to help.

Mike. Mike will know.

She figured a cop would have a few decent ideas on what to do, even avoiding official channels. She picked up her phone. It was late. Extremely late, in fact. She’d text instead of calling.

Call me when you read this in the morning. I need to talk to you about something important. Lara typed the message and then paused before pressing send. She decided to wait until Jo was out of the shower and run it by her first. She’d explain who Mike was, and that they could trust him. Once Jo had agreed, then she would send it.

Lara moved over to the kitchen. She wanted to make Jo something to eat for when she was out of the shower. But what?

Chocolate. Go with chocolate. Nearly everyone likes it and it will make her feel better.

It had the added benefit of not requiring any preparation or skill, which Lara certainly lacked in the kitchen. She figured it was one of the flaws of her generation. Hardly anyone learned to cook. The abundance of on demand food delivery made it easy to forego learning what was once considered an essential skill.

Maybe I should really make an effort to learn. Take a class or something, Lara mused to herself as she piled an assortment of both dark and milk chocolate onto a plate. As Lara set the plate down on the small coffee table next to her couch, Jo entered the living room wrapped in a towel. Lara could see the steam exiting her bedroom from behind the blonde.

“Everything okay?” Lara asked her. Jo nodded.

“Your place is lovely, Lara,” she said as she gazed around at the living room, as if noticing it for the first time.

“Yeah, I love it here. Have a seat Jo, I got us some chocolate if you are hungry,” Lara said, sitting down.

“I am actually,” the blonde said as she walked over in her towel and perched on the edge of the sofa. She picked up a piece of chocolate and started to nibble on it, gingerly. She winced as the pain in her lower lip surfaced. Lara couldn’t help but notice.

“Did he punch you?” she asked.

“More of a backhand I think. He didn’t get away easy though. I think I broke his foot with my heel. I heard a crack when I stamped down.”

“Listen, Jo. I know you don’t want to go to the police. And you’re probably right that it would be a bad idea considering who Price is. But I have a friend who works for them. He’s discreet and a good guy. We could ask his advice. I have his number right here,” she said, holding up her phone. Jo looked slightly panicked at Lara’s words.

“No, Lara. Absolutely not,” she said, firmly.

“You can trust him. What could it hurt to listen to what he has to say? I’ll call him and set up a meeting to discuss...” Lara said as Jo suddenly started to shout across her.

“Lara do not call Mike! I’m deadly fucking serious!” she screamed at Lara, the very idea of Mike knowing making her start to hyperventilate. Lara stared at Jo in shock.

What?

“I never told you his name...” Lara said, leaving the statement hanging between them. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at Jo. She noticed the blonde’s eyes darting around as if searching for something to say. She shifted on the sofa and her mouth opened and closed a couple of times.

“You must have. When I came in. Or maybe before at the club,” Jo said, desperately trying to cover for her slip up.

“No. I didn’t. I’ve been careful. Jo, I want the truth now. How did you know I was talking about Mike Hawthorne?” Lara asked. Lara had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something wasn’t right here. She hoped she was wrong but her intuition was leading her to an unpleasant truth. Either way, she needed to hear Jo say it.

“Let’s just forget about it, Lara. I’ll get dressed and go.”

“No. I want you to stay. But you need to be honest with me. Did Mike approach you before me? Are you helping him with his investigation into Price?” Lara asked, hoping that this was the case. The alternative didn’t bear thinking about.

“In a way, yes,” she responded, evading the question somewhat.

“Out with it, Jo,” Lara said, starting to get angry.

There was a pregnant pause in the room as they both stared at each other, Lara standing and Jo still seated on the couch. Finally, Jo broke the silence.

“Lara, I’m a cop. I’m Mike’s partner and yes, we are working together to bring Price down. I’ve been under cover at The Pearl since the beginning. Since before you started there,” Jo said, not meeting Lara’s eyes as she laid it all out for her.

Lara stood in disbelief. She hadn’t wanted to believe it, even when her gut had been screaming it at her from the moment Jo had slipped up. She had hoped there would be some other explanation. But there wasn’t. Jo had lied to her. From the very beginning. Her first, and for a long time only friend at The Pearl hadn’t been her friend. She’d been using her. They had both lied to her. Mike had kept it a secret too. Her fists balled at her sides in anger.

“I’m sorry, Lara. I was just doing my job,” Jo said, finally looking at her again.

“Your job required you to pretend to be my fucking friend?” Lara asked, angrily.

“It wasn’t like that. I mean, sure, at first but then we spent so much time together. We talked about everything.”

“Not quite everything,” Lara said, coolly. “I thought you were my friend.”

“I was! I am! I wasn’t pretending. I considered you my friend, too.”

“But you were lying to me! Why didn’t you tell me the truth once Mike had approached me?” she asked. Jo could see the hurt on Lara’s face. The betrayal. It hurt more than any physical injury she had sustained that night. Tears started to form again and she buried her face in her hands. Lara looked down at the crying woman.

Fuck, Lara. Now is not the time. Bury this. Deal with it later. This is not about you. She’s been through enough tonight.

Lara unclenched her fists and moved to sit beside Jo. She put her arm around her shoulder.

“I’m sorry. You really don’t need to explain yourself to me, not right now anyway. I’m a bitch,” Lara said, trying to comfort her.

“No, I’m sorry. You’re right. We should have trusted you and come clean once you agreed to help. It’s just, they drill into you about protocol regarding confidential informants. We are supposed to keep them in the dark as much as possible, for their own safety. That’s what they say anyway. Maybe they do it that way to discourage attachment. I’m not so sure any more,” Jo said, still sobbing.

“So we’re both sorry. Great. Anyway, this can wait. It’s not important right now. Let’s table it for another time, okay?” Lara said, leaning in to give her another hug. Jo hugged her back, tightly.

“Jo, you need to tell your partner,” Lara said, softly as they broke their hug.

“No.”

“But why?”

“Please, no. I couldn’t bear it. He can never know. He would ... never look at me the same way again,” Jo said, her faced pained. That’s when another truth hit Lara.

She’s in love with him. In love with Mike. And he clearly doesn’t have a clue.

“This is on Price, Jo. You shouldn’t feel shame for this. You did nothing wrong and Mike would know this. He’d want to know. To help,” Lara told her.

“If Mike knew, it would change things between us. I don’t want that. Lara, you can’t possibly know what it’s like. What I’m feeling right now...” Jo said.